I think one of the big lessons of the Unity runtime install fee debacle is that game developers need to think about the sustainability of their tools. If the development of the tool is not sustainable then it can suddenly run in to serious difficulty and have to radically change things, possibly to everyone else's detriment. It seems to me Unity went with a very generous offer for many years, ended up losing huge amounts of money, and then suddenly tried to impose install fees on everyone to try to get back to profitability. Obviously that didn't work out, a huge backlash forced them to reverse course, they've now made thousands of staff redundant, and a question mark still hangs over their long-term future. The tool cannot continue to exist in its current form if they can't find a way to make its development sustainable.
I know not everyone likes the subscription model, but it does guarantee that we can keep going indefinitely. It's clearly a sustainable model.